Colleen Kiely

Painting / Drawing

location : 6 Vernon Street, 3rd floor
email : colleen.kiely@simmons.edu

 

click an image to start the slide show

statement

Working with imagery from vernacular visual culture, these paintings investigate aesthetic and class boundaries, contradictory definitions of beauty and the complexity of sentimentality in painting. The sources of inspiration for this work are found in drugstore gift items, greeting cards, the devotional imagery of Catholicism and the history of western painting. While some viewers celebrate or dismiss this array of images as kitsch (tasteless, sentimental or ostentatious) it functions as an important emotional reference point for others. The work juxtaposes the sentimental and grotesque, the absurd and serious, with each painting striking a different balance between the opposite poles. Materially, these paintings employ a variety of paints and media including oil, alkyd, acrylic, fabric and glitter. Just as the images are drawn from the worlds of popular culture and fine art, material boundaries collapse through the use of craft materials in combination with traditional painting techniques.

bio

Colleen Kiely was born in Providence, RI and maintains a studio in Somerville, MA. She received a BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in Painting from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at Simmons College in Boston.

one-person exhibitions

2006 The Trustman Gallery, Simmons College, Boston, MA, “Between What I See and What I Say”
2003 Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA, "On the Road"
2002 Zg Gallery, Inc., Chicago, IL, "Devotion"
2001 The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, "glimmer"
1998 Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art, Boston, "Peepers"

selected group exhibitions

2005 Artist’s Space, NY, NY, “Night of 1,000 Drawings”
The DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA. "Pretty/Sweet: The Sentimental Image in Contemporary Art”
2004 The Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME, “Exquisite Corpse Project”
Boston Center for the Arts, Mills Gallery, "The 18th Drawing Show"
2003 Zg Gallery, Inc., Chicago, IL, "As Small as Possible"
2003 Zg Gallery, Inc., Chicago, IL, "Compendium"
2002 The DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA. "Painting in Boston: 1950-2000"
2002 Zg Gallery, Inc., Chicago, IL, "Gallery Artists"
2002 Icon Contemporary Art, Brunswick, ME, "Bowdoin College Faculty Exhibition"
2001 Boston Center for the Arts, Mills Gallery, "The 17th Drawing Show”
2000 The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, "Lois Foster Exhibition of Boston Area Artists"
2000 ArtLink @ Sotheby's International Young Art (on-line exhibition)
1999 Richard Anderson Fine Art, NY, NY, "The Passion/Passions of Art"
1999 Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, "Collectors Collect Contemporary: 1990-99"
1999 The Boston Athenaeum, "Front Line: Contemporary Draftsmen from New England"
1999 The Somerville Museum, "A Survey of Local Contemporary Works", Somerville, MA
1999 Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA, "The Edge of Vision, The Edge of Sight"
1999 University of MA at Dartmouth, "Selections: Works by Fifteen NEFA Fellowship Winners"
1998 The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, "Museum School Traveling Scholars 1997"
1998 Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, CT, "Women in the Visual Arts Annual Nat'l Competition"
1997 Berkshire Art Museum, MA, "Exhibition of Works on Paper"
1997 Boston Center for the Arts, Mills Gallery, "The Drawing Show"
1996 Berkshire Art Museum, MA, "Painting & Sculpture"
1996 Artspace, New Haven, CT, "New Work '96"
1995 Mario Diacono, Boston, "Rites of Paint"

awards

Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship, 2005
Mary Ingraham Bunting Fellowship, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, 2000/01
Massachusetts Cultural Council/Somerville Arts Council Grant, 2000
MacDowell Colony Fellowships, 1999, 1997, 1996
New England Foundation for the Arts Painting Fellowship, 1998
School of the Museum of Fine Arts Traveling Alumni Fellowship, 1997

selected bibliography

Temin, Christine, The Boston Globe, "How Sweet it is…or is it?", 2/13/05
Mogilevich, Mariana, Art New England, "Colleen Kiely: On the Road", April/May ‘04
New American Paintings: The Ninth Open Studios Northeastern Competition,
Number 50, Open Studios Press, Wellesley, MA, Juror: Rachel Lafo
Stange, Eric, Ch. 2 WGBH-TV's "Greater Boston Arts", interview, 11/27/02
Lloyd, Ann Wilson, "The New Painting," in Painting in Boston: 1950-2000, ed. R. Lafo, N. Capasso and J. Uhrhane, 197-98. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000
Unger, Miles, The Boston Globe, "Kiely's Works Offer Unnerving Mixtures", 4/20/01
McQuaid, Cate, The Boston Globe, "Colleen Kiely: Glimmer", 4/12/01
The Radcliffe Quarterly, The Radcliffe Questionnaire, Spring '01
New American Paintings: The Sixth Open Studios Northeastern Competition,
Number 32, Open Studios Press, Wellesley, MA, Juror: Jessica Morgan
Sherman, Mary, Boston Sunday Herald, "Kiely Brings a Cutting Edge to Cute", 4/15/01
McQuaid, Cate, The Boston Globe, "Artists Explore Transformation, Real & Implied", 12/00
Buskirk, Martha, Art in America, "Report from Boston: Art Around the Hub", June '99
Meyer, Joshua, Art New England, "The Edge of Vision/The Edge of Sight", April/May '99
Unger, Miles, Art New England, "Colleen Kiely at Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art", Feb./Mar. '99
McQuaid, Cate, The Boston Globe, "Beyond Cute", 10/22/98

selected collections

The Boston Athenaeum, MA
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art, ME
The DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
Fidelity Corporation, Boston, MA
Kenneth Freed, Boston, MA
Barbara Cole Lee, Boston, MA
Olivia & John Parker, Boston, MA
Sonesta International Corporation, Boston, MA
Joan & Roger Sonnabend,Boston, MA
Donald & Jeanne Stanton, Boston, MA

professional affiliations

Represented by ZG Gallery, Inc., Chicago, IL - www.zggallery.com
Represented in The Boston Drawing Project at Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA – www.bernardtoalegallery.com

education

School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, M.F.A. Painting
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, B.F.A. Painting